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Tuesday, September 12, 2017

ASuROC?

The Navy will get Tomahawk anti-ship missiles. As I understand it, these are hardly ideal anti-ship missiles because they are slow. Modern anti-aircraft missiles can shoot them down more easily than faster anti-ship missiles.

But if I understand the issue correctly, anti-torpedo defenses are not as good. Yes, there are counter-measures to distract some homing missiles; and we have a counter-torpedo torpedo that we can put in the fleet. But this doesn't seem nearly as solid as anti-missile defenses have become--with the caveat that missile attacks can be large to swamp missile defenses, and torpedo attacks can't be massed.

And what does China have? Is it as good as our developing thin shield?

Couldn't we use the Tomahawk with an anti-ship homing torpedo instead of a warhead, which is released near the target ship but before the anti-ship missile can be used?

Our ASROC is a torpedo designed to go after subs which is attached to a rocket to get it closer. So the mechanism should be fine for an Anti-Surface ship ROCket (ASuROC), no?

Could the Tomahawk have sensors that verify the target ship and pass the location data to the torpedo so it can use its own homing sensors to lock on to the right target?

Perhaps the torpedo would need to be dropped so close to the target ship that if the Tomahawk made it that far it might as well be aimed at the ship. Although 50 kilometers (the Mark 48) seems pretty good stand-off range.

And couldn't delivery by missile give torpedo attacks the ability to overwhelm torpedo defenses with large numbers?

Just a semi-random thought well outside my usual lane that Navy experts would be better able to evaluate.